Raise the Hammer

Comment 113660

By fmurray (registered) | Posted August 24, 2015 at 19:17:26

This is a great article, Ryan. You should submit it to The Spec.

As you may know, I work at the now-hated institution, although not in the editorial department. I can't explain the editorial published on Saturday, but I will say that it is evidence the newspaper is run by human beings, and human beings are not perfect. That isn't an excuse, it's just an observation.

Another thing I can tell you with certainty is that the editors at The Spec will not engage in a defense of an editorial over Twitter. I saw a lot of tweets over the weekend addressed to Paul Berton and sensed frustration when he didn't respond. Again, I can't speak for him, but I know 140 characters will never be the platform for engaging in a debate about an editorial.

I hope many people will write their well-thought-out comments and rebuttals to The Spec so that readers who don't know the background of this case will be educated about the other side of the argument.

Over the weekend, I also donated to the documentary "The Push". I had been wavering on whether I should do so, but the editorial caused me to pay more attention to the purpose and vision of the documentary, and led me to conclude it was a worthwhile cause. I wonder if the publicity, negative as it was, had a positive effect on the crowd-funding goal.

The frustration of the community is understandable, but The Spec building is full of people with good intentions. Please don't give up on the paper because of a couple of paragraphs with which you are in disagreement. The Letters to the Editor page is there for everyone's voices.